page_title: Otto Lilienthal
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Otto Lilienthal / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Lilienthal, Otto, 1848 Anklam - 1896 Berlin A thin uniface bronze sheet 70 x 130 mm fixed on the card of issue at Stölln, where he did his flight experiments, also his fatal one in 1896. Therefore, the airport Stölln / Rhinow in the German state Brandenburg can be considered the oldest airport of the world. Portrait r., 2 lines below: "OTTO LIILIENTHAL GEMEINDE STÖLLN" Condition: EXTREMELY FINE
context_page_description: Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the "flying man". He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders. Newspapers and magazines published photographs of Lilienthal gliding, favourably influencing public and scientific opinion about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical. On 9 August 1896, his glider stalled and he was unable to regain control. Falling from about 15 m, he broke his neck and died the next day, 10 August 1896.
context_section_description: Lilienthal's research was well known to the Wright brothers, and they credited him as a major inspiration for their decision to pursue manned flight. However, they abandoned his aeronautical data after two seasons of gliding and began using their own wind tunnel data.
  Of all the men who attacked the flying problem in the 19th century, Otto Lilienthal was easily the most important. ... It is true that attempts at gliding had been made hundreds of years before him, and that in the nineteenth century, Cayley, Spencer, Wenham, Mouillard, and many others were reported to have made feeble attempts to glide, but their failures were so complete that nothing of value resulted.
  — Wilbur Wright
  Berlin's busiest airport, Berlin Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" Airport, is named after him.
  In September 1909, Orville Wright was in Germany making demonstration flights at Tempelhof aerodrome. He paid a call to Lilienthal's widow and, on behalf of himself and Wilbur, paid tribute to Lilienthal for his influence on aviation and on their own initial experiments in 1899.
  In 1972, Lilienthal was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame.
  In 2013, American aviation magazine Flying ranked Lilienthal No. 19 on their list of the "51 Heroes of Aviation".
caption: Bronze plaque medal of Stölln, where Lilienthal had his fatal accident
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